Tech Quiz Of The Week: Linux At 25

Ben covers web and technology giants such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft and their impact on the cloud computing industry, whilst also writing about data centre players and their increasing importance in Europe.
He also covers future technologies such as drones, aerospace, science, and the effect of technology on the environment.

Since it emerged in the 1990s, Linux has been the leading open source project, and has shown just what free and open source code can do.

Free to use and modify, Linux now dominates many sections of the market. The rights to use it are managed by licences such as GPL (the GNU General Public Licence), and a host of companies make a solid business in distributing and supporting the Linux operating system.

Linux takes off

Strictly Linux is just the kernel, but the whole operating system is usually called by that name. It’s available in various distributions, that run on everything from a tiny Raspberry Pi, to China’s Tianhe supercomputers.

It’s been used everywhere, including in space – as you will find in our quiz.

It’s also faced opposition and criticism from major software players such as Microsoft, though most have eventually come to see sense and support Linux in some shape or form. In March,
Microsoft launched the Linux Bash shell command line on Windows 10, partnering with Canonical to bring ‘Ubuntu on Windows’ to its operating system.

Despite its manifest ability, Linux is still all too often hidden under the covers – so users of popular smartphones may be unaware they have it in their pockets.